TSP, which really stands for trisodium phosphate, is a MANLY cleaner. That’s right—pure cleansing power UNLEASHED! It’s also not the most environmentally friendly product, so you should only use it when absolutely necessary.

As you can clearly see, for this wall behind the range, it was:

Some of the stains looked like coffee…some like blood…some like old cigarette smoke…some like…? Let’s not go there. Since TSP can kill mildew, remove stains and de-gloss/de-grease surfaces that need to be painted, it was the perfect option for what T calls the “ucky walls” in our house.

Here’s what the same wall looked like after we scrubbed it with a diluted TSP solution:

World of difference, right? A good, deep cleaning revealed the need for CHRIS: PLASTER MASTER. I patched up cracks in the plaster and holes left behind when we removed cabinets and soon enough, the wall behind the refrigerator looked like this:

And after a good coat of primer, the walls are pretty much good to go, don’t you think?Without TSP, it’s a near certainty that those suspicious “uckies” would have bled through the primer.

For this project, we used these two products. We were able to use the empty bottle to mix more solution for other “ucky” walls. It’s reduce, REUSE and recycle, right?